You have NO evidence that a reserve grade would produce better results.
The evidence I have is that it was canned.
There's zero spectator value in a reserves, zero. It's all cost for no returns. All in the hope it will produce more talent, which is completely uncertain.
What is certain is the amount of talent that will be lossed in those regional areas, those players in the regions who are motivated by the chances of possibly winning a contract and benefit greatly from rubbing shoulders with NRL players.
It was canned in 2002 on purely financial reasons. Those barriers no longer exist.
Again reserve grade doesnt exist for spectators, it exists to be a stepping stone to first grade, thats it.
The current hotch potch has some teams running proper reserve grade sides (mostly Sydney) and others farming players out to second tier clubs. All its doing is making the second tier of the sport compromised and therefore not appealing to local fans to follow or have any legitimacy.
150k players to choose from, a second tier league could be very competitive and entertaining and continue to put players that have missed out an an NRL club contract in the shop window as well, as give players no longer able to get a NRL contract an opportunity to extend their RL career.